Given that Chris Hayward’s job involves managing the City of London’s skyline, it is a source of frustration for him that he rarely gets a chance to take in the view. More used to ascending skyscrapers within the Square Mile, it is only when he escapes its boundaries that he gets the best look. The Shard, south of the River Thames, offers the best view of the City he has seen.

When Hayward looks at that landscape, he sees an as-yet incomplete picture. “It’s a bit like a large jigsaw,” says the 58-year-old chairman of the City of London Corporation’s 35-strong planning and transportation committee.